Malaya Journal of Biosciences 2014, 1(2):67–75 ISSN 2348 6236 print / 2348 3075 online Phytochemical Screening and biological activity of Gonoderma species Copyright © 2014 MJB 67 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Full Text Article Phytochemical Screening and Biological Activity of Medicinal Mushroom Ganoderma Species Kandhasamy Rajesh 1 and Dharumadurai Dhanasekaran 1* 1* Bioprocess Technology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli - 620 024, Tamil Nadu, India. * For correspondence:dhansdd@gmail.com Article Info: Received 14 June 2014; Revised: 27 July 2014; Accepted 09 Aug 2014 ABSTRACT The present study aims to investigate the antimicrobial and antitumor properties of Ganoderma lucidum fruit bodies grown under tropical habitat. The phytochemicals present in Ganoderma sp. DKR1 were analyzed and identified as saponins, tannins, terpenoids and phlobatannins. The bioactive compounds in Ganoderma sp. DKR1 were extracted using the solvents (ethyl acetate and chloroform). Its antimicrobial activity was evaluated against clinical pathogens and its cytotoxic effect was evaluated on lung carcinoma cell line (H1 299). The ethyl acetate extract showed antibacterial activity against Micrococcus sp., Enterobacter sp., Pseudomonas sp., Enterococci faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella sp. The chloroform extract showed activity against Enterococcus faecalis, Salmonella, Enterobacter sp. and antifungal activity against Candida sp. The cytotoxic activity of Ganoderma sp. DKR1 was evaluated by MTT assay. The ethyl acetate extract did not show any cytotoxic activity on lung cancer cell line ( H1299) in comparison with control cell lines. The present study concluded that, Ganoderma sp. has enormous bioactive potential in particular; it serves as a source for antimicrobial compounds. However, further research needed to evaluate the compounds from Ganoderma sp. through phytochemical, biological and molecular standardization. Keywords: Ganoderma, phytochemicals, medicinal mushroom, cell line, clinical pathogen, Antimicrobial 1. INTRODUCTION The natural products and herbal medicine industry has become increasingly popular over the past three decades [1]. The recognition of the value of traditional medical systems, particularly of Asian origin, and identification of indigenous medicinal plants that have shown to have healing power [2], are factors that have had significant influence in the expansion of the natural product industry. Furthermore, there is a constant search for new and effective drugs, which have been driven by the number of pathogenic organism reported to have multi resistant against many of the therapeutic products that are currently available in market. Mushroom have been a major focus of investigations for novel biologically active compounds from natural resources and in recent years pharmaceutical companies have spent a lot of time developing these natural products to produce more affordable and cost effective remedies [3]. Antimicrobial activity including antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic and antiviral agents is the third widespread therapeutic effect reported in mushrooms [4,5,6,7]. Indeed it is thought that over 200 higher fungus species showed antimicrobial properties [8,9,10]. The combined biological properties of different mushroom genera such as Malaya Journal of Biosciences www.malayabiosciences.com